SINGAPORE, Sept 4 — What started as a verbal argument over a game of pool quickly erupted into a scuffle, with one man stabbing another man six times using a fruit knife, inflicting injuries that required emergency surgery.

After committing the offence in 1999, Nah Kiam Seng spent the next 25 years on the run. He absconded from Singapore and fled to the Philippines, where he lived until he was caught for overstaying and detained by authorities in 2014.

Nah spent 10 years in detention in the Philippines, before he was deported and re-arrested in Singapore on July 13 this year.

Yesterday, Nah, now 66, was sentenced to three years and six months’ jail.

He pleaded guilty to one charge of voluntarily causing grievous hurt by means of an instrument for stabbing or cutting.

What happened

The court heard that Nah got into a dispute with the victim at about 2.30am on March 2, 1999.

The dispute arose from a game of pool, which took place at Blue Berry Hill Lounge — a pub located at Jalan Leban in Ang Mo Kio. The business is still operating there 25 years on.

The victim, a Singaporean man who was 53 years old at the time, had walked over to the pool table being used by Nah, Nah’s friend Terence, and the owner of the Blue Berry Hill Lounge who was identified in court documents as Danny.

The victim had suggested a certain strategy for Danny’s play.

Upon hearing this, Terence told the man not to interfere with their game as there was an ongoing bet on the game.

However, the man did not take well to Terence’s words, and the pair began quarrelling with each other.

Nah intervened to try to stop the dispute, but this led to Nah and the man shouting at each other.

The verbal argument soon devolved into a scuffle, with the man hitting Nah in the face with a cue stick.

Fuelled by anger, Nah picked up a bar stool and tried to hit the man with it, but was stopped by Danny.

Danny calmed Nah down, and led him out of the pub. Soon after, Terence was also escorted out.

Shortly after, Nah dashed back into the pub and headed straight for the man.

Nah was armed with a fruit knife with a blade about 5cm to 7cm in length. He had bought the fruit knife from a sports shop in Chinatown on a separate occasion.

Court documents did not state why Nah had purchased the knife, or why he had been carrying it with him.

Before the man could react, Nah lunged at him and stabbed the man’s abdominal area six times with the fruit knife.

Nah had attacked the man as he was still filled with rage from their earlier scuffle. Though the man tried to fend off Nah’s attacks, it was to no avail.

The man felt a sharp pain from the attacks, and blood started oozing out from his wounds.

The man’s wife, who was with him at the pub, was stunned into silence at first but after a few stabs she began to shout for help.

Nah then ran out of the pub and across the road. He threw the fruit knife along the way, and hopped onto a taxi.

The victim was taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital. He was found to have a stab wound in his right chest measuring 3cm, and five stab wounds in his right upper abdomen, which were between 1cm and 3cm wide.

The man had to undergo an emergency laparotomy, an open abdominal surgical procedure. During the operation, he was found to have suffered a laceration on his gallbladder, with a leakage of bile.

The man was warded in the hospital between March 2 and March 13, 1999, and again from March 27 to April 6.

He was issued medical leave from March 21 to April 14. The medical leave was extended to April 20 that year.

The court heard that the man was thus unable to follow his "ordinary pursuits” for a period of 50 days — from March 2 to April 20, 1999.

Absconded to the Philippines

Following the incident on March 2, Nah went on the run until June 19, 1999, before he was traced and arrested by the police.

Nah was charged in court on June 21, 1999, with one count of voluntarily causing hurt by means of an instrument for stabbing or cutting.

He elected to claim trial to the charge.

However, Nah later failed to attend his pre-trial conferences on November 16, November 29, and December 6, 1999. A warrant to arrest was thus issued on December 6.

Some time in 1999, Nah absconded by fleeing to the Philippines.

He was eventually caught in the Philippines in 2014 for overstaying there, and was detained for the next decade.

On July 13 this year, he was deported from the Philippines, and was re-arrested upon his arrival in Singapore.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Ariel Tan said that in the 25 years that Nah spent outside of Singapore, the police had regularly renewed the police gazette issued for him, in order to trace his whereabouts.

"Resources had been expended to track down (Nah) for 25 years, and this should have a counterbalancing effect on the amount of resources that (he) has saved by pleading guilty,” said DPP Tan.

Calling Nah’s attack "brazen and vicious”, DPP Tan sought a jail term of between 3.5 years and four years.

She noted that Nah had dashed back into the pub to stab the man – and had done so six times, while the man was "defenceless”. Nah only stopped to run away, after the man’s wife shouted for help.

DPP Tan also noted that Nah faces a separate charge for the same offence, which was committed "barely over a year prior to the current offence”.

Nah had stabbed the victim of the earlier offence multiple times in the left shoulder with a fruit knife, causing the victim to be hospitalised for 48 days.

This earlier charge was also taken into consideration in sentencing.

Highlighting this, DPP Tan said the "striking similarity” of the offences and the fact that they were committed on two distinct occasions, reflected Nah’s "proclivity to violence”.

Noting also that Nah had absconded while out on bail, DPP Tan said this was "essentially an attempt by the accused to escape the consequences of his actions, and it reflects his complete contempt for authority and his lack of remorse for his offences”.

"In fact, he carried his contempt for authority to the Philippines, where he was caught overstaying and was thus detained for 10 years,” she added.

DPP Tan said that Nah should be given no credit for his presence in Singapore given that he was deported here after 25 years on the run.

Nah – who has been in remand since his date of re-arrest on July 13, 2024 — appeared in court via video link.

In mitigation, Nah, who was unrepresented, told the court that he had not seen his family – including his mother, wife, children, and siblings – for over a decade.

"I know what I did was wrong, but I have nothing in my life when I came back here,” he said, while tearing up.

For voluntarily causing grievous hurt by means of an instrument for stabbing or cutting, Nah could have been jailed for life, or jailed for up to 10 years and caned or fined. — TODAY